Kosta Tsurnushanov (1903-1997), was born in the town of Prilep, in Vardar
Macedonia, in the
year of the Ilinden uprising. He was a friend of the novelist
Dimitar Talev, also from Prilep.
Tsurnushanov was a contemporary of all the significant events which
took place in Macedonia
during the early half of this century. He witnessed the initial euphoria
of most of the Macedonian
population at the prospect of its liberation at the beggining of the
first balkan war and its tragedy
when most of Macedonia found itself under a new foreign yoke following
WW1 - so he was well
acqainted with the Macedonian reality before 1944. Tsurnushanov was
a member of MMTRO, the
youth organisation of VMRO, which can boast among its members such
prominent Macedonian
revolutionaries as Giuzelov, Chkatrov - a close associate of Todor
Alexandrov, and so on. He
moved to Sofia in the late 1930's and went back to Macedonia as a school
inspector in the period
1941-44, and then again returned to Sofia. It is interesting that he
has been at odds with all Bulgarian
governments which have been in power during the time he has lived in
Bulgaria.